"more or less dead when I was old enough in the early 00s"

Think it was just your peer group then. It's still very much a thing. Did it in my youth twice, once at 16 years once at 18 around 2010. I know my cousin who is >10 years younger than me also did it sometime in the last 5 years. Among my peers it was fairly common but it was not done by the majority. If I'd have to guess I'd say 10-20% did it at some point towards the end of highschool.

We also did party trips but that's just a different kind of trip and doesn't really mean the other thing is dead.

No, I just imagined the trip…

Yes, very much still a thing. We saw Interrail travellers of all ages. Lots of students going on a big adventure - but a decent number of more experienced travellers seeing the sights.

When I graduated uni in the late 2010s it was still quite popular. Budget airlines have made trips to southern Europe a lot more popular/feasible for a boozy weekend with mates, but for people who want to go backpacking for a month or two Interrail still made a lot of sense, at that time at least.

I've used Interrail every time I want to travel a longer distance across Europe by train. Spares me some of the stress of dealing with interruptions since I can often just hop on the next train. Unless it's fully booked...

I did it in 2010 and I think the majority of my friends have done it over the years. At least around that time it still seemed very much alive for people in the UK.

Interrail is sometimes cheaper, specially as a student. Otherwise it’s usually still cheaper if you want to go to multiple stops

746,000 Interrail passes sold in 2024

https://www.interrail.com/en/magazine/did-you-know/rail-reca...

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